WOW! Someone Paid A Lot for Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers

So, this is kind of crazy.   Obviously, worn by Minnesota native, Judy Garland, who was Dorothy in the movie, they wound up in a museum in Grand Rapids, then they were stolen in 2005.  They were recoverd a few years ago in 2018.  By the way, there is a twin pair of ruby slippers in the Smithsonian Institute.

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This pair of Ruby Slippers went on the auction block over the last week, and predictions were that they could go from approximately 3-5 million dollars.  The final bid, blew that prediction out of the water.

The final bid for those famous ruby slippers was 28 million dollars!

I'm always so amazed at auctions like this where these pieces of memorabilia go for these crazy amounts of money.  I mean, who has this kind of dough?  And not only that, you have that kind of money, and enough where you can afford to spend that on something that will just sit there....not useful at all.  But I suppose if you have that kind of money, and you can afford to spend that, why not?

Among those bidding to bring the slippers home was the Judy Garland Museum, which posted on Facebook shortly after that it did not place the winning bid. The museum had campaigned for donations to supplement money raised by the city of Grand Rapids at its annual Judy Garland festival and the $100,000 set aside this year by Minnesota lawmakers to help the museum purchase the slippers.

It is kind of disappointig that the museum in Grand Rapids did not win the bid for the slippers.  It would be great to be able to go and see them.  They are so small.  Judy Garland was a tiny person.  She was only 4'11".  And the shoes are a size 5.  By the way, fun fact... as mentioned above, the slippers are are a twin to the pair which is in the Smithsonian, and they are a mismatched pair.  Question is this - why not match them?  Why let them sit there mismatched for all of these years?  One pair is a size 5C with a 5BC.  Seems like it would be an easy fix.  Maybe that is part of the intrigue.